The LaMetroMole with LACMTA Comments

A critique of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transit Authority's management and operations: Los Angeles Transportation,

2010-12-31

Vae Viator10

Service Slashed♪

If one studies the partial map [(Metro System Map) from which this small sliver, above, is extracted], something that the LACMTA apparently did not do, one will find that two important links to the Metro “system”, which were provided by the 439 Line, have been severed. Since the 439 was the only way to link up the LAXCBC with West-side service from the CCTC and (sporadically) with Imperial BL Metro Service from Aviation station, those options are no longer available.

To assist you in understanding what the LACMTA has done, su Topo has spray painted out and created a kind of black hole, where there used to be transportation. Or perhaps a black trench is a better word. Thinking about trenches brings to mind the planned “Crenshaw Line”, which to this Mole is just another way to spend money to NOT get to LAX.

But, there is good news for someone. Now there is no true second choice for LAX service, without the 439 Line, LAWA's FlaAway is left unchallenged as the sole supplier of bus service from Union Station to the airport. Which leads me directly into my next topic, a variation of paying more for less service :-( .

Equal Taxation Yields Unequal Provision of Service.

You have seen the rubric, immediately above, before and never has it been more applicable! There is now NO convenient Metro service from downtown Los Angeles to LAX, providing in effect, another reason to be forced to ride the LAWA FlyAway service for $7 each way. Napoléon Bonaparte: “Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence.” Whether by malice or incompetence, severing Metro links to important nodes in the transportation “system” the LACMTA is abdicating its role as a mass transit provider. Further, it is NOT using tax revenues which it obtained from, among other monetary flows, “Measure R”, to provide necessary transportation; you remember that “Measure R” [could the “R” stand for Robbery?] was the ballot initiative which Snoble propagandized by using still other tax revenues earmarked for TRANSPORTATION. By reducing service as it did, to this Mole's way of thinking, the LACMTA is providing a direct subsidy to LAWA's Union Station service. As a way of saying "thank you", LAWA could fund the 439 line, good idea?

So, LACMTA pass holders have again seen their passes devalued and are forced to spend more on other transportation services in order to move about the city and/or county. In some cases, this Mole suspects, the additional revenue –here think FlyAway- may well flow back to Metro one way or another. The standard cost of a “Muni Transfer” is 35-cents and if as I have noticed, drivers can’t/won’t/don’t/refuse to tell passengers about the Muni transfer option, passengers end up paying full fare on the non-Metro connection. Where is Ms Wendy Greuel when we citizens need her?

While depriving passengers of minimal service, the LACMTA initiate services like the “Silver Line” in direct competition with Foothill Transit on a portion of the route. Why should only one organization be a member of money losing club when they both can join.

Well, Topo, how should the LACMTA fix this? 1> Make ALL LACMTA management and staff ride Metro and ONLY metro for 90 days sorry, no Muni transfers; 2> Accept service improvement suggestions from them at the end of each 30 day period; 3> schedule monthly meetings at the end of each 30 day period, at the furthest Metro location from their regular work sites, timed to start one hour after the normal end of day. Or optionally, immediately (that’s about 90 days for the dysfunctional LACMTA, start issuing gratisMuni Transfers to all passengers who request them, then, within six (6) months negotiate a mutual pass acceptance among all Los Angeles County bus systems.

Forget that old pipe dream of the “E-Z-Pass”: at [the LACMTA says just] $84 per month it is too expensive and given the current economic conditions, most people can’t afford an “E-Z-Pass” at even one fourth the price, [LACMTA, that would be $21].

Nothing is so difficult but that it may be found out by seeking.

Jean Racine (1639-12-22 ~ 1699-04-21)

The Mole reads the papers and other things, so you don’t have to.

Forbes magazine interviewed several Nobel Prize winners. Here is what Daniel McFadden, who shared the prize for Economic Sciences with James Heckman, had to say (Ackerman).

[Forbes.com] You have done a lot of work in the economics of mass transit. Should U.S. policy be doing more in that area?

[McFadden] If you go around the world and look at cities that are built around mass transit systems, those cities work better than most U.S. cities do. What you need to have a mass transit system work is a land-use pattern that is matched to it. It's a difficult thing to just put up a mass transit system, particularly ones like a fixed-rail system in the kind of suburban sprawl that we have and have them be very effective [emphasis added-Mole]. It's hard to get enough ridership to have them pay their own way or even close to it, and the reason is access is not so easy. If you are brave enough, you build the system and have the city build around them. A century ago that's what happened in the U.S. with the trolley system. But that takes some political courage, because these systems are going to be underutilized, and they are not going to pay their way for a long time.

The Times(Weikel) covers a “$31.5-million bus rapid transit project” [You know, moving fewer slightly faster while bypassing many] part of which involves taking part of Wilshire BL in both directions for bus lanes. That is, except for an exclusion zone whose residents are apparently positioned politically so as to opt out of the plan. Never has the feckless LACMTA been brought into sharper focus as with this lame plan. Your Mole calls it a “plan” with its own built-in bottleneck. One of the apparently prescient supervisors is paraphrased as ‘saying the gap would slow buses by only 30 seconds.” [This quote is from the Times piece, NOT directly from the supervisors statement.] Not covered was exactly how much of the 31.5 million would be spent on the 7.7 miles of bus lanes and exactly how the rest of the funds would be wasted, er spent. The article does do a pretty good job of covering the cons of this “plan”, so please read it in its entirety. Now, if the Feckless group were more eager to think rather than spend money they might try “coning-off” the lanes as a trial for a while. You know, make it a first; “proof of concept” project.

An opinion piece by two women from Cheviot Hills who support the Expo Line included this statement “One weekend we knocked on 60 doors. We found 15 active supporters of the rail line at grade as currently proposed, three vehement opponents and 14 who had no opinion one way or the other. (The others weren't home.)”

Of course many of us may take the easy way out when approached by what may appear as people with something to sell at your door. Like: “Right, sure, absolutely it’s a great idea, bye now.” I believe that this is the second editorial by this group. Anyway, the 1400 Cheviot Hills residents are hardly a majority of the population that lives alone the “bad idea’s” route. Letters to the editor about the Opinion piece on a single day [Letters to the Times Editor on December 23, 2010] were running 2 to 1 against the line  . Please read those as well.

Ear to the Rail

The first link I would like you to follow relates to Mind Mapping. Mind Mapping is a useful technique for note taking, depicting relationships and documenting brainstorming sessions.

For a brief video and some supporting text along with sample mind maps please see: http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newISS_01.htm . Warning: This site has things for sale. La Taupe didn’t buy anything and there are lots of other sites which can help you learn this technique, just use Bing or Google to search for ‘“Mind Map” +tutorial’. I encourage you to watch the video and read through the short web page before proceeding.

Su Topo, is deeply involved in IT (Information Technology) and the related Industrial/Systems Engineering field, so he is eminently qualified to comment, advise and consult in those areas. No!, NO!! I don’t want the LACMTA as a client, errr, it’s too political.

I think that you will find that if the LACMTA used more techniques like “Mind Mapping” we would have a much better transportation system. Not one, like that which resulted from the current “shakeup”, which in canceling majorrr portion of the 439 Line, severed Metro links to both Aviation Station and ongoing Metro buses as well as the Culver City Transportation Center with its Metro service to Marina del Rey, Culver City, Hollywood, Malibu, Santa Monica and etc.

Rarely have I used the same source for both “Ear to the Rail” and “Cosmos”. But this is one of the cases where the same site www.mica-vw.org is the contributor to both rubrics. The site is a “virtual group” and uses “Second Life”. Su Topo has zero dipping into minus, interest in “Second Life”, “Farmville” and its ilk. However if you want to “attend” future discussions by these intelligent people you may want to investigate how to use the “Second Life” tools which they employ. Using only the audio will mean that you will often NOT see items referred to by the speaker.

I found this http://www.mica-vw.org/wiki/images/7/7c/R_Knop_25_Sept_2010.mp3 (Please start the download as you read this.) discussion of “Parallel Universes” very interesting. This is not science fiction! Dr. Knop, the speaker, makes clear that, [su Topo’s paraphrasing] assuming an infinite universe, mathematics alone will prove that somewhere there is a facsimile of you. Briefly, the arrangements, i.e., combinations, of atoms are finite, therefore in an infinite universe there must be duplication.

Feeling a twinge of conscience because I dissed “Second Life” (vide supra), I did some research and found this: http://chronicle.com/article/After-Frustrations-in-Second/64137/ . Which link discussed “OpenSimulator” termed “OpenSim” in Dr. Knop’s discussion. If you still haven’t had enough of this media/message digression you might look at this page: http://mediagrid.org/news/2010-11_iED_Create_Once_Experience_Everywhere.html , which tells us what may lie ahead for iED (immersive Education) which is, your Mole believes, the use of virtual reality/virtual worlds for those who live far away from the presentation venue or suffer from agoraphobia.

The Mole Rides Again, so he can tell you about people being set free.

All times are expressed in the 24 hour system.(e.g., 8 AM is 8:00, 8PM is 20:00)

2010-12-01, 13:30: I return from Long Beach on a 232 Line bus. At an early stop and man bangs on the windows along the curb side of the bus (#11010). It turns out that he is the relief driver, #76089; he takes over. Although First Transit no longer contracts this route, this guy’s driving style is in their mode, i.e., rough. The bus is brought to quick stops as traffic dictates and comes to a jerky stop at virtually every bus stop.

One of my fellow passengers is a very angry woman who busies herself with the rearrangement of the contents of her back pack and large shopping bag. Somehow the back pack has made her even angrier so she throws it at the shopping bag; reinforcing her physical action with an appropriate verbal stream, including telling it to “shut up”.

The driver is making stop announcements but I never get to clearly understand many of them. The announcements sound to me like “Aha ham aha hum, ham”. A new passenger boards the bus and sits next to a young Latina, immediately in front of La Taupe. He seems unfamiliar with the concept of the shower.

2010-12-03, 14:00 @ LAXCBC: A panhandler is approaching everyone; “I just need to catch a bus”. He has been at this for several days.

A homeless woman sleeps on a bench in the weak sun. It would seem that she is living the life of a vampire.

A woman, whose ample belly overhangs her waistband, is walking around. This place screams for some kind of security and even more importantly some sort of social services for the homeless who loiter here –there is almost none of either.

I board a 117 Line, it’s cold and the driver of high must have a fever because he has the air conditioner on full blast!

The driver, #77546 of this bus (#11032), a south bound 232 line, carried on a non-stop conversation with a passenger who stood in the middle of aisle in the front of this packed bus.

2012-12-04, 8:45 @ LAXCBC. It is cold as two Airport Police Cars roll in the eastern entry drive and pull into what is usually the EXIT lane for buses leaving the north side of the central “island”. The driver of the lead car exits his vehicle and moves to the trunk, which he opens and removes a piece of rolling luggage. Then he walks to the right rear passenger door, opens it and helps his passenger out. The passenger faces the car and is un-handcuffed. The man’s clothing is filthy and he has a large stain, which appears to be oil, on the right sleeve of his jacket. The man walks to the street and pauses to adjust his luggage for a few minutes and moves on. The two patrol cars soon leave the LAXCBC.

I board a 439 bus and am followed shortly by a male passenger. He brings with him an assortment of luggage: a beat-up cardboard box which once held a laptop and a Kirkland box which once contained bottles of juice.

He takes a seat, removes a plastic bottle from the Kirkland box and holds it upside down, then shakes it, apparently, to free any of its contents from the walls of the bottle. He massages his face with some of the contents of the bottle. He intently studies a plastic bag which once contained baked goods.

2010-12-06, 15:00 @ CCTC. A man wearing a 90201 T-shirt and a FDNY hat works his way through the trash cans. He pauses to read a portion of a rescued Los Angeles Times.

Another man feeds the birds from the dregs of his bag of chips and collects quite a flock in the process. Su Topo is not very happy being so close to this birds and the dust, feathers and etc. which they release into the air. The “bird-man” uses the same bus to LAXCBC that I do. Once there, he begins combing the trash cans.

Homeless At LAXCBC♪

The person depicted above seems to be having a nice nap. But when one considers that it must be cold and uncomfortable sleeping on a concrete bench, few would want to exchange places.

A homeless woman with two luggage carts and two fairly large, well-worn, stuffed bears waits at the LAXCBC. She sits on the larger bear while the smaller one reclines on top of the larger of her two luggage carts.

201-12-13 The buses, except for some of the contract lines, had the new schedules on board. The schedules would be just great if it were 1980. But the feckless LACMTA could do much, much better. For example they could print a two digit code in small font at the start of route and end of route for each time line on the schedule. So, for a route that started at the LAXCBC and ended in Long Beach the time lines might look like this:

[75] 7:23 more times at stops which are time points 8:57 [73]

The numbers in brackets represent the percentages, 75 and 73 respectively and are represent the frequencies that buses are expect to leave and arrive on-time [please note that in my example these are imaginary numbers. This would be important information for a prospective rider who is evaluating several routes in order to determine which, in fact, is the more realistic one. That is, if the LACMTA could move out of the RTD era into 2011 and the 21st Century. The point here is deterministic transportation, i.e., “Describesasystemwhose time evolution can be predictedexactly.” [Source: dictionary.com] so that trips can be repeated in similar times.

The latest scheme with which the LACMTA has become enamored, “Call 511” (11-0456kk) supposedly will allow one to obtain bus information from an automated system. Of course, they want to reduce head-count below what was required by “1-800-COMMUTE. Of course an automated system will simply project the schedule times based upon an known time point, leaving you with, not much, hope –perhaps.

I wait on a corner of La Brea. It seems like forever. Seven (7) 40 Line buses pass by, interspersed with five (5) 740 Line buses and two out-of-service 311 Line buses, all pass me before, at last, a 311 Line bus shows up. Oh, and most of the buses were very lightly loaded!

2010-12-21, 8:30 @ LAXCBC: A First Transit, oops, make that an MV Transit operator (#77955) “positions” her bus (#11010) for boarding. The front door is about four (4) feet from the curb and the rear of the bus is about seven (7) feet away. As I make the observation I notice that “MV Transit” has replaced “First Transit” to the right of “operated by, all painted on the rear right panel. I follow up and find an MV Transit press release with this headline “MV Transportation, Inc. Begins New $74.5 Million Contract with L.A. Metro - Fairfield, Calif., (November 2, 2010)”. I can tell you that based upon this experience that, technically, the drivers are no better than the First Transit staff. But they do seem to be more personable and so far, they call out the stops when the buses don’t have ASA, which is most of the time. For the press release, please see: http://news.mvtransit.com/assets/pdfs/press/2010/MV_Begins_New_Contract_LA_Metro.pdf .

Mariposa Station: Twin pools of water stand on the floor of the station elevator on this rainy day. The elevator door cycles open-close … . This station has gaps in the overhead covering available to shelter passengers on the platform and obviously, less covering than is needed for the elevator, too.

At Firestone Station I watch two lady deputies sit, chat and text on the platform, while we wait for our turn to single track on the outbound side due to inbound overhead power cable problems.

2010-12-27 around 8:00 @ LAXCBC. Several homeless women take shelter from the rain here. One is wearing a plastic poncho and sitting on a bench rocking back and forth on this cold day. Another bent at the waist, rests her head on top of a trash can.

2010-12-30 around 8:00: Aboard a 311 Line bus (#7551) headed to the LAXCBC. This driver is preaching, literally, quoting scripture and on and on with how can I say this, … a holier than thou attitude. His attention to recalling the perfect biblical passage means his driving and the progress of the bus is impeded. Mr. Lehey! Can’t you find a more polite way to tell your drivers to “S hut up and drive!”? I’ll go to Mass when I want religious input. If they insist on being a preacher, let them resign their job at Metro; Fair enough??

And to all who see this:

¡Prospero Año Nuevo!

Happy New Year!

Bonne année et bonne santé!

Dedicated to the Dulcinea of my dreams

‘What wonder is it if Roland was so good a knight and so valiant as everyone says he was, when, after all, he was enchanted, and nobody could kill him save by thrusting a corking pin into the sole of his foot, and he always wore shoes with seven iron soles? Though cunning devices did not avail him against Bernardo del Carpio, who knew all about them, and strangled him in his arms at Roncesvalles. But putting the question of his valour aside, let us come to his losing his wits, for certain it is that he did lose them in consequence of the proofs he discovered at the fountain, and the intelligence the shepherd gave him of Angelica having slept more than two siestas with Medoro, a little curly-headed Moor, and page to Agramante. If he was persuaded that this was true, and that his lady had wronged him, it is no wonder that he should have gone mad; but I, how am I to imitate him in his madness, unless I can imitate him in the cause of it? For my Dulcinea, I will venture to swear, never saw a Moor in her life, as he is, in his proper costume, and she is this day as the mother that bore her, and I should plainly be doing her a wrong if, fancying anything else, I were to go mad with the same kind of madness as Roland the Furious. On the other hand, I see that Amadis of Gaul, without losing his senses and without doing anything mad, acquired as a lover as much fame as the most famous; for, according to his history, on finding
himself rejected by his lady Oriana, who had ordered him not to appear in her presence until it should be her pleasure, all he did was to retire to the Pena Pobre in company with a hermit, and there he took his fill of weeping until Heaven sent him relief in the midst of his great grief and need. And if this be true, as it is, why should I now take the trouble to strip stark naked, or do mischief to these trees which have done me no harm, or why am I to disturb the clear waters of these brooks which will give me to drink whenever I have a mind? Long live the memory of Amadis and let him be imitated so far as is possible by Don Quixote of La Mancha, of whom it will be said, as was said of the other, that if he did not achieve great things, he died in attempting them; and if I am not repulsed or rejected by my Dulcinea, it is enough for me, as I have said,
to be absent from her. And so, now to business; come to my memory ye deeds of Amadis, and show me how I am to begin to imitate you. I know already that what he chiefly did was to pray and commend himself to God; but what am I to do for a rosary, for I have not got one?"

And then it occurred to him how he might make one, and that was by tearing a great strip off the tail of his shirt which hung down, and making eleven knots on it, one bigger than the rest, and this served him for a rosary all the time he was there, during which he repeated countless ave-marias. But what distressed him greatly was not having another hermit there to confess him and receive consolation from; and so he solaced himself with pacing up and down the little meadow, and writing and carving on the bark of the trees and on the fine sand a multitude of verses all in harmony with his sadness, and some in praise of Dulcinea; but, when he was found there afterwards, the only ones completely legible that could be discovered were those that follow here:

Ye on the mountain side that grow,
Ye green things all, trees, shrubs, and bushes,
Are ye aweary of the woe
That this poor aching bosom crushes?
If it disturb you, and I owe
Some reparation, it may be a
Defence for me to let you know
Don Quixote's tears are on the flow,
And all for distant Dulcinea
Del Toboso.

The lealest lover time can show,
Doomed for a lady-love to languish,
Among these solitudes doth go,
A prey to every kind of anguish.
Why Love should like a spiteful foe
Thus use him, he hath no idea,
But hogsheads full--this doth he know--
Don Quixote's tears are on the flow,
And all for distant Dulcinea
Del Toboso.

Adventure-seeking doth he go
Up rugged heights, down rocky valleys,
But hill or dale, or high or low,
Mishap attendeth all his sallies:
Love still pursues him to and fro,
And plies his cruel scourge--ah me! a
Relentless fate, an endless woe;
Don Quixote's tears are on the flow,
And all for distant Dulcinea
Del Toboso.

The addition of "Del Toboso" to Dulcinea's name gave rise to no little laughter among those who found the above lines, for they suspected Don Quixote must have fancied that unless he added "del Toboso" when he introduced the name of Dulcinea the verse would be unintelligible; which was indeed the fact, as he himself afterwards admitted. He wrote many more, but, as has been said, these three verses were all that could be plainly and perfectly deciphered. In this way, and in sighing and calling on the fauns and satyrs of the woods and the nymphs of the streams, and Echo, moist and mournful, to answer, console, and hear him, as well as in looking for herbs to sustain him, he passed his time until Sancho's return; and had that been delayed three weeks, as it was three days, the Knight of the Rueful Countenance would have worn such an altered countenance that the mother that bore him would not have known him: and here it will be well to leave him, wrapped up in sighs and verses, to relate how Sancho Panza fared on his mission.’

Note: No or few entries above do not necessarily mean all fare boxes are in operation.

I.D.Numbers of Distracted Drivers: None included here, but observations of a minor nature may be included in the main posting;

Codes: (i) Extended conversation(s) with passenger(s) or (ii) cell phone call(s). Frequently, details can be found in the text above, (ii*) cell phone call(s) which are aggravated by some other action, (iii) Self-distracted. Codes (ii*) and (iii) will ALWAYS be explained in the posting.

I.D. Numbers of Buses Defaced by WhoIs stickers:9580;

~UR or +UR = (+UR) whois sticker and the ugly residue left after passengers partly remove the sticker. (~UR) = Only the ugly residue left after passengers almost completely remove the sticker. +L = an old (legacy) sticker black letters on a plain white background –these are the original form of defacement.

* Another reason for displaying the operator's ID on the internal display and the headsign.

ID numbers of Buses whose Head and Tail signs disagree: 6573 111/202;

Format is Bus number followed by Headsign number/Tailsign number.

La Taupe's Abréviations

ADADO = Automatic Destination Announcement (on) Door Opening. This feature is installed on many buses and operates on extremely few. Another “money down the toilet” LACMTA investment. La Taupe that this is intended for the visually impaired because people who can see can read the “head signs”.

ASAS = Automatic Stop Announcement System the GPS (Global Positioning System) driven mechanism for generating audio for the upcoming stops. N.B. Because of the low power (read weak) processors used in the on-board stops may be too close to identify stops separately. This is know as a granularity problem. Then too, if the driver operates the bus at speed above the speed limit you will find the system “back announcing” stops which you have already passed. I find that this will NOT keep some drivers from complaining “that you didn’t signal (ring) in time. They don’t understand their relationship to the system and how, by driving faster than the GPS computer, they can bias it.

BBB = Santa Monica’s Big Blue Bus

CC or CCMBL = Culver City (Municipal) Bus (Lines)

CCTC = Culver City Transportation Center this is the place formerly known as FHMTC = the Fox Hills Mall Transportation Center (Sepulveda & Slauson)

FFE = Full Fare Equivalent (presently $1.60)

LAXCBC = the LAX City Bus Center.

Rapid Transit = does not compete for right of way, that is, it will not run at grade unless it has EXCLUSIVE DEDICATED USE of the right of way).

TT = Torrance Transit.

T1 = the normal type of driver/staff.

T2 = is the non-stop talker type of driver/staff, on the phone or to passengers,

T3 = the uncommunicative type of driver/staff, sometimes surly.

WLATC = the West Los Angeles Transportation Center (Fairfax & Apple)

Su Topo’s Disclaimer and apologia

Your Mole always attempts to write an easy-on-the-eyes page using text input. Blogger.com however, has other ideas and will often not stay with a single font type or point size, produces extraneous spacing and etc. I wish I had time to debug the HTML which they produce, it is NOT the straight text which I pasted into the form, but I don’t. Therefore, I apologize on behalf of Blogger.com for the changes which they make, of which I do not approve. Sometimes, what I see, thankfully you don’t, is 24 point type –it is giant and other times they swallow my text, although it still seems to be there. In fairness to them, things seem better, although this is partly because I do understand which of their “features” do the most damage to me and consequently do not use them. Communicating these problems to them, for me, is something like having teeth extracted without the benefit of anesthetic, actually it is less fun than that. By their design, there is no simple e-mailing them with "Please look at my say, posting of 2009-06-28, it is weird!” I am hoping that one of their developers will some day read this, copy my code and improve their text to HTML engine. Until then, lo siento.

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